Hi,
This is Carrie and I'm sorry it has taken me so long to update, I guess I haven't felt real encouraged lately. Any way here is my update after almost two years:

I had the surgery on 5-13-99, I now weigh 98 pounds and am a size 2. I am still on a liquid/soft diet. I have also been told that since I have had my gallbladder out and my stomach is not emptying correctly I must eat a low fat diet. This means that I cannot drink supplements like Boost, Resource, or Ensure. I can occassionaly get a slim fast down, but not only does that cause a lot of people to talk since they already think I'm anorexic but then it also makes me so full that I sometimes can't eat the next meal. Instead of being able to eat steak, hamburger, pizza, etc as promised, I eat tofu, yogurt, & soups. Even those things can still cause my throat to swell and I become quite uncomfortable. I have had all of the test, manometry, gastric emptying, upper GI, 24 hour ph (which by the way the acid is as bad or worse than before the surgery), scopes w/ dilation of the esophagus. The consensus, nerve damage including partial paralysis of the vegas nerve. The damage to the vegas nerve is believed to be the cause of my stomach not emptying correctly. Nerve problems or damage is also believed to be the reasons for the throat swelling/spasming, the frequent hiccups and some of my other symptoms. I have been given so many different medications to try over the past two years including propulsid (the one that got yanked for it's deadly side effects), nothing has seemed to help. The doctors tell me that this could all be temporary but at almost two years since the surgery I kinda doubt it.The doctor's of course will not say that this is a result of the surgery and state that since none of the test were done first, they cannot tell if my condition was there before the surgery or not. Of course, I know. At my last meeting with the specialist, he basically said he didn't know what else to do and recommended that I see a counselor to help me cope with the way my life is going to be. Isn't that something to look forward to? A life of eating runny, yucky, gooey foods that I don't like, just to keep going the way I'm going.

What I've learned, or my advise. Before you have the surgery be sure to have ALL relavent test done, maybe even more than the standard 24 hour ph and manometry. Talk to other doctors and see what they think, get a second or even third opinion from a doctor outside of the recommending doctor's office. Read web pages like this one so you can get a clear idea of what the real people say about how their surgery went. Really know the risk vs benefits. Good luck in what ever you choose.

Carrie
Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.